Fr. Carlo Di Sopra sx
XXXII Sunday in ordinary time Reflection.
They liked lengthy academic discussions and polemics on religious affairs, to contradict teachers and compare sentences of the scripture: this was their best entertainment. It was not love of truth that moved their reasoning, but the pleasure to feel superior when they were able to catch others in some kind of inconsistency.
It is with this attitude that the Sadducees approached Jesus. They thought their story was perfect to prove that to believe in the resurrection is unreasonable and futile. “We have it from Moses, in writing...” Seven brothers married the widow of the first one, so, in the resurrection, which one will be the real husband of the woman?
Jesus, by contrast, does not resort to academics or a show of his knowledge of scriptures, though himself can quote Moses when he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, not of the dead therefore, but of the living. Because for God all men are alive. A simple definition of God as giver of life in whom there is no contradiction or turning back on his actions. When God gives life, it is forever!
But the Sadducees are warned that they will not be able to understand God if they continue to think according to their human short-sighted vision. In the resurrection it will not be the same as here on earth because we shall all be children of God.
Neither for us it is easy to imagine God nor to understand life after death. We can hear many statements about heaven, how it looks like, how to reach there, how happy we shall be or how difficult to gain it. But we have to be careful not to follow fantasies or awkward ideas. In order not to be deceived, we can certainly look at Jesus and how he lived. He is the one who showed us the resurrection and the life to come. He experienced it and he shares it with us in the Church. We can look at him because He went through all kind difficulties, sufferings and doubts, he felt abandoned by everyone, even by God himself, his beloved Father, but he pushed his faith in the closeness of God beyond all limits, beyond any human trust, so that we could truly and verily rely on God.
By looking to Jesus and to his life therefore, it becomes possible for everyone to remain faithful to God and to give even our entire life for the good of others. Just like the heroic seven Maccabee brothers and martyrs. They had the courage and the strength to resist the orders of the king, even at the cost of their lives, so certain they were that God would not fail them.
The same faith in the resurrection generates so many martyrs in the church even today. They die because of persecutions and hatred, but they witness to another way of spending their lives. The faith in the resurrection inspires above all so many actions and behaviours all over the world that initiate processes of renewal in the world, leading towards what the Bible calls ‘a new earth and a new heaven’.
It is not a matter of clever discussions or futile polemics, but of concrete facts and attitudes that put our lives in line with that of Jesus.
XXXII Sunday in ordinary time Reflection.
They liked lengthy academic discussions and polemics on religious affairs, to contradict teachers and compare sentences of the scripture: this was their best entertainment. It was not love of truth that moved their reasoning, but the pleasure to feel superior when they were able to catch others in some kind of inconsistency.
It is with this attitude that the Sadducees approached Jesus. They thought their story was perfect to prove that to believe in the resurrection is unreasonable and futile. “We have it from Moses, in writing...” Seven brothers married the widow of the first one, so, in the resurrection, which one will be the real husband of the woman?
Jesus, by contrast, does not resort to academics or a show of his knowledge of scriptures, though himself can quote Moses when he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, not of the dead therefore, but of the living. Because for God all men are alive. A simple definition of God as giver of life in whom there is no contradiction or turning back on his actions. When God gives life, it is forever!
But the Sadducees are warned that they will not be able to understand God if they continue to think according to their human short-sighted vision. In the resurrection it will not be the same as here on earth because we shall all be children of God.
Neither for us it is easy to imagine God nor to understand life after death. We can hear many statements about heaven, how it looks like, how to reach there, how happy we shall be or how difficult to gain it. But we have to be careful not to follow fantasies or awkward ideas. In order not to be deceived, we can certainly look at Jesus and how he lived. He is the one who showed us the resurrection and the life to come. He experienced it and he shares it with us in the Church. We can look at him because He went through all kind difficulties, sufferings and doubts, he felt abandoned by everyone, even by God himself, his beloved Father, but he pushed his faith in the closeness of God beyond all limits, beyond any human trust, so that we could truly and verily rely on God.
By looking to Jesus and to his life therefore, it becomes possible for everyone to remain faithful to God and to give even our entire life for the good of others. Just like the heroic seven Maccabee brothers and martyrs. They had the courage and the strength to resist the orders of the king, even at the cost of their lives, so certain they were that God would not fail them.
The same faith in the resurrection generates so many martyrs in the church even today. They die because of persecutions and hatred, but they witness to another way of spending their lives. The faith in the resurrection inspires above all so many actions and behaviours all over the world that initiate processes of renewal in the world, leading towards what the Bible calls ‘a new earth and a new heaven’.
It is not a matter of clever discussions or futile polemics, but of concrete facts and attitudes that put our lives in line with that of Jesus.